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Jo can ‘inspire’

JO Konta can help “inspire” Great BritainÈs Fed Cup team to one day emulate the achievements of their male counterparts in Davis Cup.

Andy Murray led the chaps of Team GB to claim the trophy their country founded for the first time since the 1930s in Belgium in 2015.

Hopefully Jo's success and the way she goes about it will inspire the other girls.

And Anne Keothavong, successor to AndyÈs mum Judy as Fed Cup, is looking to British No.1 Konta to do something similar in Fed Cup, starting in Estonia where promotion from the Europe/Asia zone is on the agenda..

Konta, the first British woman to break into the top ten since Jo Durie in the 1980s and recent Australian Open quarter-finalist, links up with teammates Heather Watson, Laura Robson and Jocelyn Rae in the GB squad for the bid.

Keothavong, 33, said: “Hopefully Jo’s success and the way she goes about it will inspire the other girls.

“They can definitely learn a lot from her. For the first time since Jo Durie we’ve got a top-10 player so that in itself gives the team a different feel.

“We all know what she’s capable of, but Laura and Heather have also had big wins and they’re still very young.”

GB take on Turkey, Latvia and Portugal in Group C..

The four group winners will move into the promotion play-offs on Saturday, with two qualifying for World Group II play-offs in April.

Judy Murray resigned frustrated at being able to get GB promoted, critical of the format.

Former British No.1 Keothavong, who played in 39 Cup ties, said: “The format doesn’t lend itself to anything – but it is what it is and we have to accept that.

“There’s only eight teams in the Fed Cup World Group whereas the Davis Cup has 16 so, with the format, it will take us a few years to get there.

About The Author

Mike Donovan is a journalist and author who has covered tennis for more than 20 years. He was tennis correspondent on Today, the first all-electronic, all-colour newspaper, and contributed to the official Wimbledon website. He has scribed for most national dailies and magazines on the sport of the fuzzy green ball, as the late Bud Collins used to describe tennis. Mike has twice won British Sports Writer of the Year awards. He is the author of a variety of football books and has one coming out on Pitch Publishing in September called ‘Glory Glory Lane’, about the 118-year history of Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane.

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